Project Speed-Up Not Enough Says Lobby Group
February 12th, 2009
NZ Council for Infrastructure Development CEO, Stephen Selwood, has hit out at the Govt’s infrastructure spending plan announced this week. Selwood says a sense of scale is lacking in the $500m of infrastructure upgrades and is also concerned at a lack of clear policy over the future of the rail network and operations.
Deficit not tackled. Selwood says the roading initiatives in particular include projects already in the pipeline or consented, which have merely been slightly juggled up the construction queue. This alone will not help NZ close the substantial transport infrastructure deficit the country faces, highlighted by NZ’s ranking of 31st in the OECD for transport infrastructure. “We’ve got some huge challenges facing us.” Selwood met with transport Minister Stephen Joyce to express the NZCID’s concerns armed with its assessment of a $15bn funding gap for major transport capital works. He says he and Joyce “got off to a positive start” though the queue of organisations waiting to lobby Joyce means “we’re literally one of hundreds.”
Business case needed. NZ’s railway policy is something of a black hole, according to Selwood, with none of the major projects identified as needing to be constructed funded within the next 10 years of Land Transport NZ budgets. What’s lacking in particular is the business case – what parts of the freight and public transport market can Kiwirail capture? None of this is being discussed yet, Selwood says, and there’s a “huge tail” of required maintenance. Joyce concurs – there is no funding in existing budgets for developments like a rail link to Auckland airport or other rail projects in the city.
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